Charleville - Part 3

Who’d have thought there was so much to see in Charleville.

On our next day we went on yet another tour.  This time it was to a date farm.  Now that is something different, so not to be missed.  We had spoken to a lady at the caravan park who highly recommended it after her visit the day before.

The farm is “Outback Date Farms” and was established in 2014.  Mark, the owner had grown some date palms near Brisbane and wanted to take it further.  He settled on Charleville, due to the climate, and in a very enterprising manner, approached the local council.  The property he had selected was just downstream from the sewerage treatment works and the runoff after treatment was literally just running down the paddock.  Mark requested to use the water, and the council agreed, on the condition that once established, he conduct tours.

He has established a series of ponds and dams.

There are 500 trees on the farm.  He had planned to plant more, but has determined that it would be too much work to manage.

Date palms are the most salt tolerant of all fruits trees, so suit the climate well.  They also produce lots of offshoot plants, so are easy to propagate.  You can see one of the offshoots on this palm.

There are several varieties.  The only variety that most of us had heard of was Medjool.  Most of the ones we see in Australia are grown in California.  Mark grows a lot of other varieties, which are familiar to people from the Middle East and they are delighted to be able to buy them fresh in Australia.  

We did a taste test and there really is quite a difference between varieties.  As well as fresh dates, we tasted date juice and date liqueur, both delicious.  As they are only a small operation, they only sell fresh dates and the value added items, not dried dates.  Sadly, in the heavy rains earlier in the year, his cool room leaked and much of the most recent harvest were spoiled.

The tour concluded with morning tea of a delicious date loaf and we were all given the recipe.  

You could purchase some of the products and we bought some sticky date pudding for tea that night  Yum.

We really enjoyed the tour and Mark was a very engaging and informative guide.  It was not something we had expected to see, so a nice bonus.

It’s Daphne Time

Our lovely daphne bush near our back door is in full bloom at the moment and the fragrance when you step outside is divine.

Yesterday, I picked just three blooms to pop in a little vase and initially I didn’t really smell it.  However, when I came inside after being out today the room was definitely daphne scented.  Who would think that just three little flowers could be so strong.  Mick said that it stinks, but he was joking.  He loves the daphne as well.  We have planted a smaller cultivar near our front door recently, so we hope it grows half was well as our first one.

Being daphne time means that it is also hellebore time.  

I do love these gentle colours that appear in late winter.

All our different violets are blooming away, along with the polyanthus.

We have several jonquils, but the daffodils are a little way off.  

We divided some very crowded old fashioned frilly daffodil bulbs in summer. Mick has been popping them in here, there and everywhere, yep even throughout the vege gardens.  I don’t think they are going to flower this year.  Hopefully they will be back to their usual selves next year.

The garden at the side of our shed was getting very overgrown, with some of the things we planted being lost as a result, so it was time to get in and tidy it up, ready for spring.

That looks a lot better.  The irrigation has been moved to the back and Mick will add some more micro jets at the front, once he gets to the shop.  I’m sure some of the things we dug out will come up again to fill the blank areas.  We have taken a hydrangea out of a pot and planted it here, where it should thrive.  The day after we did this a good friend gifted me a rose in memory of Mum, called “Mother’s Love”.  It has now been planted in this garden as well.

While Mick was digging things out, I was planting seedlings and runners into little pots for the church fete in the middle of October.  That should give them plenty of time to either settle in or die.  I hope they settle in.  I potted up 40 pots.  We have some other things in various garden beds that also need thinning, so there will be some more pots prepared soon.

It is currently raining gently, which is always good for things to get growing, coming into one of the nicest seasons of the year.

How Disappointing

You may remember that last winter I started to knit a jumper.  This is the pattern.  It had many new techniques for me to try, being knitted from the top down, with a lace yoke.

Well, I didn’t get all that far with it before other shiny things took my attention.   It has been waiting patiently for me to get back to it.  This year has been a little crazy, and I must say that I haven’t been the right frame of mind just lately, despite having plenty of time to work on it.

Finally, yesterday, I decided to pull it out and recommence working on the lace yoke.  There weren’t too many rows to go before things would be much simpler.

Well, I knitted to the first stitch marker, and notice that the next stitch was just over the needle, not a stitch.  That didn’t make sense.  I thought I must have dropped a stitch, which would be easy to recitify.

However, upon closer inspection, it turns out there is a break in the wool a few rows back.  What!  Has a moth been in there? How disappointing.  I really don’t want to try to unpick back to there, so I am going to abandon the project at this point.  I know that may sound defeatist, but it is the best thing at the present time.

I may start this jumper again, or I may use a different pattern, using a technique I’m more familiar with, seeing it is a long time since I have knitted a jumper.

In the meantime, there is another rather simple top I would like to knit for summer.  I just have to wait until I can start pulling down boxes to find the linen blend yarn that is in stash.

Charleville - Part 2

Our next day in Charleville was rather leisurely.  

The only touristy thing we did was go to the railway station, which is the location of the information centre and most importantly the home of the Bilby Centre.

You can still travel to Charleville by train, with two services each week. The railway reached Charleville in 1888, with the current station being built in the late 1950s.  It has beautiful terrazzo floors, having different colours in different sections.

Now, the reason we were there was the bilbies.

You initially enter a theatrette, where we learnt a bit about bilbies and more importantly how their numbers have declined to near extinction.  Originally, they covered most of Australia, but not where we live, as it is too cold.  Feral animals, namely foxes, cats and rabbits are responsible for most of the decline.  There are only two areas left in the country with a wild population.  One is in western Queensland and the other in the Pilbara in Western Australia.  Both only have tiny populations.

Enter the Bilby Brothers.

Peter McRae, a zoologist, was always passionate about bilbies.

Frank Manthey was a roo shooter, turned National Parks ranger who had recently lost his wife.  Peter approached him to join him in trying to save the bilbies.

Together they formed the Save the Bilby Fund.  Their aim was to establish a breeding program and release some bilbies into a controlled, pest free environment.

They did so much fund raising, including encouraging Darrell Lea to make Easter Bilbies instead of Easter bunnies, with proceeds going to the fund.  A special fence would be needed, so people could buy a fence post.

Eventually, they were able to fence off an area of 100 ha in the Currawinya National Park.  The fence has different sized netting, which is buried into the ground and has a floppy top to prevent animals climbing over.  It then has several strands of electric fencing.  

In 2005, six pairs were released into the park.  Sadly, some time later a flood went through, damaging the fence and all bilbies were lost.

The fence was rebuilt, this time all in stainless steel and a further group of bilbies were released, which are doing well.  They breed, not like rabbits, but like bilbies. However, they do breed quickly.  

The next plan is to do a controlled release of some bilbies into the area outside the current enclosure, still with a very concerted effort to keep feral animals away.  I do hope it succeeds.

They played a video of a 60 Minutes segment from when they originally released the first batch of bilbies.  That was back in 2005, and the presenter mentioned that they estimated, at that time, that there were about 20 million feral cats in Australia.  How many more would there be now?  We saw many on the side of the road, in broad daylight, as we travelled along on this trip, something we had never seen before.  We mentioned it to the lady there and she said that many travellers had made a similar comment.  Quite worrying.

Back to our tour…

The next part of the tour was to enter the night room.  They have a few bilbies in this area, where the room is lit during our night and dark during the day, so that we can see these nocturnal creatures.  

They really are rather cute.

We do hope that this wonderful little creature can be saved.  I doubt very much if they will ever be able to have a wide release back into the wild, but if they can have some living in a natural environment and preserve those small wild pockets that will be better than nothing.

Now for the rest of our day……

We just had a wander around town looking at the lovely old buildings.  Being Sunday, there was very little open.  Come for a walk with us.

You can see the town thrived in the 1920s, by the architecture.

After our walk, Mick was able to go and have a roll at the local bowling club, who made him feel very welcome.

The day was finished off by joining other travellers at the fire pit in the caravan park.  A nice, social way to end an enjoyable day.  Oh, and you really need to be with the right person, as there is always someone who knows someone you know.  We had a nice chat with a lady that used to ride motorcycles with many of the old motorcyclists from Bathurst.  Small world.

We then looked forward to seeing some more on the following day.

Charleville - Part 1

It’s about time that I finished writing up our recent trip to Queensland, before I forget what we got up to.  

Grab a cuppa, as this is a long one.

We had a couple of places we really wanted to have a good look around and one of those was Charleville.  We had been through twice before, once briefly in about 2003, when we visited the museum and were fascinated by the ambulance that ran on the railway lines.   The second time was in 2019.  On that trip we were more focused on getting further north, so only had a walk up and down the street before heading on our way.  I was intrigued by a grand hotel on that trip and hoped to one day return to have a better look.

Not long after that trip, a friend visited and mentioned all these interesting things they had seen, which we knew nothing about.  It really made me want to return and stay for a little while to have a better look around.  Finally, it was to happen.

We arrived in the middle of the day on the Saturday, and after settling in at the caravan park, enquired about tours of that grand hotel I noticed on our previous trip.  Yes, they had tours later that afternoon.  Perfect.  A local lady, Rachel, has a business conducting tours each day during the tourist season.  She is quite the fount of knowledge.

The hotel is the “Hotel Corones” and has a fascinating history.  

Let’s head inside.

Our tour was just a small group of seven and started by everyone having to select a funny hat to wear.  Mick decided that his battered old leather hat was funny enough so opted out.  Rachel started by telling us a bit of the history of the founder of the hotel.

Harry Corones was a young Greek immigrant who came to Australia, complete with his twelve year old nephew, in the early 1900s.  They arrived in Sydney and Harry got a job in a Greek cafe.  Shortly after, they moved to Brisbane to work in another Greek cafe, owned by a distant relative. 

Harry had been saving and wanted to own his own business, so started looking around for somewhere that was going ahead and the name Charleville kept coming up.  By chance a cafe was on the market, so he bought it and soon developed a reputation for excellent food and service.  He did so well that he opened a second cafe in the town.

The Hotel Charleville was in need of new lessees, so the owners approached Harry.  He initially declined, but they persisted until he agreed.  To become the licensee, he first had to become an Australian citizen, thus becoming the first Greek born licensee in Australia.  He quickly learned the ropes and the hotel was very successful, with his ongoing reputation for good service.

However, Harry then wanted to own his own hotel, so purchased the run down weatherboard Hotel Norman, on the next corner up the street, while having his now adult nephew run the Hotel Charleville.  Harry wished for the finest hotel in western Queensland and had an architect from Toowoomba prepare the plans.  The building was started in 1924 and completed in 1929 at the cost of 50,000 pounds.  It was one of the first masonry buildings in the town.  He cleverly did the building in stages, with the bar being the last, so that he could continue to trade.  At this stage, he thought he needed a wife, so toddled off to Sydney and married Effie, the daughter of the Greek Orthodox Bishop.  What a contrast Charleville must have been for her.

The Hotel Corones was known as the Hilton of the West and was very up to date, with custom made furniture, some ensuite bathrooms and beautiful lead light windows.  Many dignitaries stayed there, including famous aviators and even royalty.  During World War II, General MacArthur stayed there, as did Robert Menzies.  

This was all in the time when the pastoral industry was booming with wool making outrageous prices.  Shearers would also stay, often sleeping on beds set up on the verandah, dormitory style.  They would give their pay packet to the hotel, and once the funds ran out, would head off to the shearing sheds again.

At the time, it was claimed that the bar was the longest in the world.  It is U shaped and sadly, in recent times a small portion was started to be demolished before it could be prevented.  Back in the day, apparently the patrons would be six deep, with staff wandering among the crowd to take orders.

The upstairs sitting room is gorgeous with its striped timber flooring.  Unfortunately, there is next to no original furniture in the hotel.  The round side tables beside the fireplace are two of just a few remaining items.

The other original items are the sideboards in the dining room. The painting on the bottom one is of the original Hotel Norman.

The hotel has been flooded on several occasions over the years, but fortunately, there is a now a levee bank which protects the town.  The 1990 flood was one of the worst and the sign shows the height it reached.

Adjoining the Hotel, Harry also built the Corones Hall, for large functions and during World War II, dances every evening.  He even built a two storey building as staff accommodation.  

Sadly, the hall has seen better days.  From the outside you can see that at one stage it was a night club, but now is a dingy bottle shop.  The stage is still there, but looking very dilapidated.  One incongruous feature is the disco ball still hanging from the ceiling.

As well as the hotel and his cafes, Harry was very involved in the community, being on the hospital, ambulance and fire brigade boards.  His term as a board member of the hospital is the longest of any board member in Australia.  He was one of the founding shareholders of Qantas, and by bringing picnic hampers to the Aerodrome on their stopovers, became the first airline caterer.  He was also involved in many other community organisations within the Charleville area.

The hotel was run by Harry and his family for many years. After Harry’s passing, his son ran the pub for some years before selling it.  Since then, it has had mixed fortunes with its various owner, even going into receivership at one stage.  The people that bought it after that did a lot of work and the lady owner even wrote a book on the hotel’s history and collected much of the memorabilia that is currently in the hotel.  She even took the initiative to have the building added to the State Heritage Register. The hotel recently sold for $2 million and for the first time is not owned by a family.  

Sadly, we felt that the hotel has lost a lot of its glory.  If you want a meal, it is served in the bar, not the dining room.  The menu is just on a piece of A4 paper and the selection rather ordinary pub grub.  When we were there, there were only two small groups of people in the bar, a far cry from the crowds in its hay days.  Several panes of the beautiful lead light windows are broken or missing.  Rather sad, but times are tough in the bush and I think pubs are struggling everywhere.  I do hope they can keep it going and keep it well maintained.

Our tour finished with a group photo of us all on the grand staircase wearing our funny hats.  It was a fitting end to a very enjoyable and interesting afternoon.